I'm looking a machine with the following specs . . . Is this enough to use CC well - specifically After Effects and Premiere pro? I really wanted to go Apple, but I didn't want an I-mac (I already have a monitor that I love), and I keep hearing that the MacMini is not going to work - even with the i7 processor and 16 gigs of RAM, this machine is more powerful, and the same price, so I can stick with Windows if that is the case, but again, is this really enough? Is the video card the right one? I am checking to insure there is room for a second and possibly a third hard drive as well. I also will be checking with the manufacturer to make sure that I can expand to 64 GB RAM or even 128 GB if I want to later.

I appreciate any and all advice, but I am a total newbie. I have 12 years of NLE experience, but I've never built my own rig - so to speak, A lot of the real nitty gritty is still foreign to me, so if you could dumb it down, that would be awesome!

Windows

Intel Core2 Duo or AMD Phenom II processor with 64-bit support my specs say something slightly different, but is what I may be getting compatible? is it the same thing??

OpenGL 2.0–capable system - what does this mean? How would I know before I purchase the computer if it's OpenGL 2.0 capable?

Optional: Adobe-certifi ed GPU card for GPU-accelerated ray-traced 3D renderer - What is a GPU card? Do computers come with it? Does the one above? What does it mean? What questions should I ask of the Manufacturer?

"I appreciate any and all advice, but I am a total newbie. I have 12 years of NLE experience, but I've never built my own rig - so to speak, A lot of the real nitty gritty is still foreign to me, so if you could dumb it down, that would be awesome!"

Again, I've done a lot of research, but I cant quite figure it out until someone explains some of this in plain language.

While I build my own (and prefer the fastest dell precision available for baseline -on my 5th generation machine now), if you'd rather let someone else work out the details, then consider a turn-key system:

While on the tweakers page, pay careful attention to your chosen format and the kind of edit pipeline that will be involved. Most folks tend to focus on hardware alone. Step back and consider the entire picture, including the frame.

The CPU in that system is already one generation old at this point, and it has only four physical cores. What's more, the GTX 745 is an extremely weak performer by current standards: It is a "crippled" version of the GTX 750 Ti, with only 384 of its 640 CUDA cores enabled and hobbled further by its lousy-performing DDR3 video memory with a throughput of only 28.8 GB/second (versus the nearly 200 GB/second memory throughput if the GPUs that we generally recommend). That said, the GTX 745 is slightly faster than the old, first-generation GT 640 which was a really lousy performer by any standard.

In other words, depending on how much the reseller is selling that system for, I wouldn't waste money for that PC.